Researchers create biocrude from wet algae in one minute

Engineering researchers at Michigan University believe the process is capable of transforming 65 per cent of green marine micro-alga from the genus Nannochloropsis into biocrude.

‘We’re trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with marine organisms,’ said Phil Savage, an Arthur F Thurnau professor and a professor of chemical engineering at the university.

The findings will be presented today at the 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.

To make the biocrude, Savage and Julia Faeth, a doctoral student in Savage’s lab, filled a steel pipe connector with 1.5ml of wet algae, capped it and placed it in sand heated at 1,100ºF.

The small volume ensured that the algae was heated through, but with only a minute to warm up, the algae’s temperature will have just reached the 550ºF mark before the team removed the reactor.

Previously, Savage and his team heated the algae for times ranging from 10 to 90 minutes. They are said to have seen their best results, with about half of the algae converted to biocrude, after treating it for 10 to 40 minutes at 570ºF.